“I really mean it too. Now come on, we need to get to dinner.”
She nodded on a yawn. He really did wish they could stay in that moment forever, but they couldn’t. Dinner awaited them, but after that he had every intention to continue their exploration.
Chapter Five
“The girls already ate. They ate swiftly so they could get back to their hair and nail fest,” Galinda laughed. “As you can see they started with me on the hair, but since they wanted me to cook they gave me a break on the nails. They promise they’ll tie me down and make me sit for it later,” she laughed harder. “And they’re planning on getting you too, Bambi. Be afraid; be very afraid because my niece is on some crazy water marble kick where she’s planning to use neon colors to create a “zombie-like” print. What is a zombie-like print?”
Bambi shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I think I’ll hide in my bedroom.”
“Take Sterling with you,” she winked. Bambi gasped. “Oh please, it’s not like I didn’t know what was going on back there. Trent told me Sterling looked at you like a man who was two steps away from breaking every indecency law, stripping you and taking you right there on the beach.”
She laughed herself. Sterling was back in his room getting himself cleaned up for dinner since they had managed to splash water all over the floor, on which his clothes were lying at the time. “Oh gosh, please tell me they don’t know,” she mumbled.
“They’re too wrapped up in the hair and nails to notice right now. Jocelyn loves you. I doubt very seriously that she would be upset if you and her dad got together.”
Bambi knew she wouldn’t be upset at all. They were friends. In some ways she was like a mother to her, but still, she didn’t want her to know she had just been shagging her father in the bathtub.
Dinner, a little time with the girls and then two sleeping teens later and Sterling was walking her back to the guest house. He had a small bag in his hand that told her he was definitely planning to stay. Galinda told them to have fun and assured Sterling she would keep watch over the girls while he was occupied elsewhere. And after that he was most definitely occupied elsewhere—in her bed to be exact. She had no idea the man would be such an amazing, gentle and well diversified lover. There were things he did that she didn’t even know could be done, yet he had done them and she had come each time.
While he stayed the night in her bed he was quick to leave before the sun could crest the sky. He wanted to be coming out of his room for breakfast, not coming into the main house via the kitchen access point. She understood that. So when he left her bed she got up, did her routine as usual and dressed in comfortable clothing for their day out. By the time she got to the kitchen Sterling, Jocelyn and Chloe were already sitting at the breakfast nook table having rather large bowls of Kellogg’s Smart Choice cereal. Galinda was in the shower, they had said while sliding a bowl over to her so she could fix her own cereal. Thankfully they still had some fresh fruit in the house that she could add to her breakfast. Had she actually bought the ingredients she spent the morning shopping for yesterday then they would have more fruit. She gave Sterling an apologetic smile as she grabbed the last pear. He grinned and shrugged while waving a permissive hand her way.
“Thanks,” she sat down on the other side of Chloe while Sterling sat adjacent her next to Jocelyn. A few stolen glances at each other in between listening to two energetic teens rave about their new hair and nail do, the morning workout Jocelyn helped Chloe through and the importance of eating clean, of which Jocelyn seemed to be overjoyed to speak about, left Bambi with a smile on her face. This felt like home. Being in Tahiti, sitting here with Sterling and Jocelyn felt like family. She knew Jocelyn wasn’t her daughter, but if she had one she would want her to be like her—smart, funny, dedicated and sassy while still being sweet. She was so much like her father. Bambi was sure Jocelyn had the drive within her to succeed at whatever path she took in life. Right now she was leaning toward nutritionist and fitness guru she had said. She would be good at it. Her backup plan wasn’t so much a backup. “I can do my dad’s job and yours too, Bambi.” She was going to go for the gusto and do everything she wanted to do. Given her ability to soak up her father’s knowledge Bambi didn’t doubt her plan would be successful.
“You’re going to college,” Sterling shook his finger at her with a smile on his face.
“Why bother? I can learn everything I need to know working for the two of you.”
Sterling shook his head.
Bambi laughed. “I hate to break it to you, but if you want to follow through with the nutritionist thing you’re going to have to go to school and get all of those boring certifications before you can practice.”
“Hmm…is there a way around that?”
“Not a legal way,” she shook her head. “Go, meet people, take advantage of some of the internship and work-study opportunities and you’ll find that the time will fly by and before you know it, you’ll have so much knowledge to take into practice with you. Besides, each year I have to go to conferences and see what’s new in the field too. You’ll always be learning no matter which one of our professions pull you the most.”
“She’s right,” Sterling admitted.
“Fine. But only because I trust you both. I’m going to live with Bambi while I do college for sure.”
“Oh, news to me, but okay,” Bambi laughed. “If it’s okay with you, Sterling.”
“I think I have other plans for both of you, but we’ll talk about that later.”
“Oh, Dad don’t rain on my fun. Bambi is like the best.” She turned to Chloe. “I wish she were my mom.” She looked at her empty bowl. “Oh well, we’re done and we are going to go make our hair look fabulous before we go explore Tahiti.” She giggled as she and Chloe cleared their dishes from the table and skipped off down the hall toward their rooms where they planned to do a lot of work on hair and makeup.
“You should be her mother,” he said.
“What?”
“You’re good with her. She loves you. You love her. You should be her mother.”
“Not possible. She has a mother.”
He snorted. “Fine, call it step-mother, but you’ll still be more of a mother to her than Jordana is.”
She couldn’t disagree with him there, but wait…what was he saying? Her spoon froze half way to her mouth as she raised her eyes to look at Sterling.
“Marry me; please?”
“Yes,” she said swiftly on a laugh before settling her excitement. “You meant to ask me that; right?”
He laughed. “Absolutely. I planned to ask in a more romantic spot than the kitchen table, but when the courage hits me I feel it best I act.”
She smiled widely before getting up from her seat and going to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “Yes, a thousand times yes.” One small kiss turned into something bigger when Sterling cupped the back of her head in his big hand, tangled his fingers in her soft curls, and held her firmly in place. The sound of giggling teenagers pulled them out of their moment. Bambi blushed wildly, suddenly feeling bashful in light of their discovered secret—recent secret seeing as though they had just both let their affection for each other be made known to each other.
“It’s about time, Dad.” Jocelyn had a huge smile on her face. Bambi wondered what she would think if she knew her father had asked her to marry him.
“Well I hope you’ll still feel that way at the wedding,” Sterling blurted the words out, but Bambi could tell from the smoothness of his voice that he very much meant to say it. There was no easing into the transitional news, but that’s the way Sterling was. He wasn’t the type of man to ease into anything. He just went for it, spoke his mind and did what he had to do. Maybe that’s why she hadn’t realized he felt anything for her. If he had felt something for her she figured he would have come to her the same way he approached everything else—no fear, no mercy. But then she realized, he really loved her and it scared him. He had been married before. He had a teen wh
o was soon to be a woman while Bambi didn’t have kids and hadn’t been married. He had most likely looked at his life and wondered if she would want to take it on. He was afraid, and something about that warmed her heart more.
“Married!” Jocelyn squealed as she ran over to the table tossed her arms around her father and then straightened up so she could hug Bambi too. “Yay! It’s about time for that too. I always knew you should get married again and I hoped it would be Bambi. She rocks,” she gave her father a fist bump that had Bambi laughing.
The day spent together had gone well. They had fun with Sterling finally seeing more than just the office hub. Every visit he made seemed to be just about business—two days in and out with no frill. It wasn’t as if he went frequently, but at least twice while she was doing a training program elsewhere so she hadn’t been able to go with him. And from what she had heard, those trips had not been trips about fun or getting to know the office personnel more. Those trips had been all business, fixing problems, making arrangements and then getting on the plane to jet set off to his next location.
Jocelyn had never seen Tahiti so it was her first time and just like any first time visitor she seemed to have stars in her eyes and heaven on her mind. She dropped the hint about maybe living here once she finished college—since her father had insisted she go, she had added. Bambi figured she was letting him know to save a spot for her at the Tahiti hub because she was going to want a job too. Sterling gave a knowing grin, but never a promise. He was going to keep her guessing and working hard to earn that spot and Bambi knew that. But at the end of the day she was sure Sterling would prefer she work at the hub where his trusted men could keep eyes on her and make sure she was safe than if she just came to Tahiti and opened a nutrition and fitness center. She was teetering on both, and Bambi knew Sterling was already plotting the best way to keep his daughter safe by way of a near shadowing personal bodyguard.
Overall the day had been amazing. Only twice did she have that hair raising feeling like something wasn’t quite right, like somebody was watching her. But with a casual, yet thorough, scan of her surroundings she didn’t see anybody. She figured she was just on edge after seeing Peter the day before and she needed to get past that.
“What are we looking for?” Sterling had mumbled in her ear. The man was too skilled and observant for his own good. “Your body language changed. What are we looking for?”
We, he had said, because he was the kind of man who wouldn’t let her walk alone. “Nothing,” she turned to him and smiled. “I just had a weird feeling. I guess I’m still reeling from yesterday.”
“Hmm,” he nodded before scanning their surroundings with much more perceptiveness than she had appeared to do. He looked like a military man scouting for the enemy. After a long glance around them from all positions he gave a slight hint of relaxation before wrapping his arm around her and walking with her. She could tell he was still on guard and for that she was sorry. He shouldn’t have had to be on guard. This was his day off—or at least it was supposed to be. But when she thought about it with clarity she realized this day off wasn’t about him; he had scheduled it for her, so that she could take some time to deal with what happened. He, however, was still very much on the clock. He had taken her on as both fiancé and charge. She was now one of his charges, one of the people he would protect. She never thought she would be in this position. She never thought she would need to be here. She had avoided so much through the years, places, opportunities, simply because she didn’t want to have to chance running into Peter and here she was, working in Tahiti on a project she dreamed of doing for years and her biggest fear had come to haunt her. The man she had tried hard to avoid all these years, telling Sterling she couldn’t make the San Diego trip with him the times he went simply because she had to get things together for other units, but that she would send her assistant with packages to hand out instead, turning down the first offer to move out to San Diego and do a beach workout DVD series…she had done all that silently trying to avoid possibly running into Peter or somebody in his circle of family friends.
Oh she denied it to herself, but she knew that’s what it was. She was still afraid of him, and seeing him yesterday had made her come face to face with that fear.
While Chloe, Jocelyn and Galinda were marveling over some fashion forward design that could look great on a date while hiding a gun, Galinda had said, Sterling was taking a keen liking to kissing her neck. She was in his arms, where she loved being. Having those strong arms wrapped around her waist from behind felt good—too good for a day outing. They needed some alone time at home with the way she felt right now. Judging from the bulge in his pants and the way he was kissing her neck and licking her skin, she would say he felt the same as she did.
“I can’t stop touching you,” he whispered in her ear. She had to admit she couldn’t stop wanting him to touch her. She had waited so long for this, so long for him to want her, touch her, take her. She had wanted this from the moment she saw him—lust clouding her judgment so much that she broke her own rule and signed the contract he offered without really paying attention to all the details. It wasn’t as if he hid any of the demands that she work exclusively for him in the fine print. Everything was clear cut, but she hadn’t bothered to take note. She was glad she hadn’t. She was glad her attraction to him had clouded her judgment because if it hadn’t then she wouldn’t be working for him now. She would have thought through the downside of being exclusive and she would have most likely said no. Clouded judgment made her sign on the dotted line and she was so thankful for that. Not just the money, but the experience of working for Sterling had been the best part of her adult working life. He was the best when it came to working with anybody. He listened, he educated, he took her around the world to help other people get in shape and eat healthy. And on top of that she was in love with the man. Life had a way of working things out.
“I like when you touch me,” she smiled as she watched the girls in the distance. “But if you keep that up you risk them seeing what you’re doing to me.”
“So?” He slid his hand a little lower.
“Any lower and your hand will be in my panties, Sterling.”
He chuckled, blowing warm breath on her neck. “Maybe I should test that theory.”
“Maybe you should not.” She placed her hand over his to stop his descent. “As much as I want you to we can’t—not here.”
He grumbled before removing his hand and putting a little distance between them. When she turned to look at him his eyes were hazed with desire, and his lips were turned upward with devious consent. She shook her head. “You’re bad.”
“Nah, I’m good. I’ll show you later,” he winked.
“Would you two get over here?” Galinda yelled. “These girls are going to talk me into buying the entire store.”
Bambi laughed hard. “We should go rescue her.” She looked up at him. “And tonight I can rescue you.” She lowered her eyes to his growing erection. He had to be in some kind of pain as big as the bulge against his pants was.
“I’m holding you to that.”
She took hold of his hand and pulled him toward the shopping area. Maybe she would sneak away and buy something sexy for tonight. She was always more bikini cut panties, cotton was comfortable and breathable. But maybe for tonight she should go for lace. She only had two pair of lace boy-short panties and both were still at home. She wasn’t exactly expecting to make love with Sterling and there wasn’t anybody else she wanted so why bring the lace when she wasn’t planning to need them? Well, lesson learned because the lace would be a sweet deal for him when he went to take her panties off her.
“No, I can’t do that,” she mumbled. Sneaking off wasn’t an option.
“Do what?” Sterling turned her to face him.
“Oh I was thinking out loud. Ignore me.”
“Not a chance. Do what?”
“I was thinking I would sneak away and buy something special for you.”
“Not a chance,” he said sternly.
“That’s what I thought.”
“You don’t need to buy me anything.”
“Well it wasn’t for you per se. I would be wearing it—panties—lace.”
He looked her over from head to toe. “I’m sure whatever panties you have on now will be fine. Besides, with how I feel right now I’m more likely to rip them off you, not pull them off you.”
“Oh,” she formed a sexy o-shape with her mouth. There wasn’t a need to go buy something lacy and expensive if he was just going to shred it anyway.
“Now if you don’t stop setting my libido on fire we’re going to have to find someplace where I can pull down those sexy pants of yours and take you now.”
She giggled. “That is oh so tempting…but no. Let’s just focus on the outing. It will take your mind off my body until we get back to the house.”
“Nothing is going to take my mind off that body of yours, Bambi. Nothing at all.”
Trouble in Paradise Page 6
